That great universal majority, the poor, will be especially guarded and cared for.  There will be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad; no unemployed, begging for a chance to earn a dry crust, and no workers fighting for a fair share of the fruit of their sweat-wet toil.  But there are tenderer touches yet upon this canvas.  Broken hearts will be healed up, prison doors unhung, broken family circles complete again.  It is to be a time of great rejoicing by the common people.  Yet all this will be brought about, not immediately, but gradually, following the natural law of growth; though the beginning will be marked by a great crisis, coming suddenly.

The effect upon Israel nationally is to be tremendous, sweepingly reversing the conditions under which most of these predictions are made.  Israel is to become a Spirit-baptized nation, wholly swayed by the Spirit of God, and that gracious sway never to be withdrawn.  All judgments for her sins are removed and all impurity thoroughly cleansed away.  Possession of their own land is assured.  And the capital city is to become a holy place from which, in common with the whole land, all impurity has been cleansed away.  All weakness and disability are gone, and full freedom from the exactions of her former enemies to be enjoyed.  Not only is Israel to be at peace with all nations, but, far more, is to have the leadership of the nations of the earth, and leadership of the highest sort—­in a world-wide spiritual movement, in the day when the Spirit of God is to be poured out upon all flesh.

This leadership is to be a glorious and absolute supremacy among all the nations of the earth.  And yet this is not to be by man’s method of conquest, but of their own earnest accord all nations will come a-running eagerly, voluntarily, with all their wealth and resources for the upbuilding and service of Israel.  In that time the Hebrew capital Jerusalem will likewise be the capital of the earth.

No less radical and sweeping will be the changes in Israel personally, individually.  The people are to be made over new within.  The modern word for this sort of thing is regeneration.  The old-fashioned word is a new heart—­a new spirit.  The change is to be at the core; a change of the sort.  With this will come a marked spirit of devotion to God, and a peculiar open-mindedness to the truth.  There will be an absence of all sickness and a decided increase in length of life and great increase in numbers.  There will be no longer any disappointment in plans, and the sense of slavish fear, which is universal, not only with all the race, but through all time, will be utterly absent.  Israel is to be a nation of persons with thrilled hearts and radiant faces.

Back to Eden.